Panthers Prevail
February 07, 2007 10:34 PM | General
February 7, 2007
BOX SCORE | PHOTO GALLERY
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Pitt played like a Top 10 team Wednesday night at the WVU Coliseum. The No. 6-rated Panthers held West Virginia to a season-low 47 points in a 60-47 victory over the Mountaineers in Morgantown.
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| West Virginia's Joe Alexander attempts a lay up during Wednesday night's game against Pitt at the WVU Coliseum in Morgantown. The Panthers won the game 60-47.
All-Pro Photography/Dale Sparks |
Forward Sam Young came off the bench to score a season-high 21 points and grab seven rebounds to lead Pitt, now 21-3, 9-1. Young came into the game averaging just 5 points and 2.3 rebounds per game.
“Pitt is a very, very good team,” said West Virginia coach John Beilein. “They have a chance a long way into March. They have great chemistry, a great plan and play very, very good man-to-man defense as you can see from our 47 points.”
Pitt led by 10 at halftime, 27-17, and had a 16-point lead with seven minutes left in the game before West Virginia went on a 12-0 run, cutting it to four, 49-45. The Mountaineers could have made it a one-possession game, but Joe Alexander missed a contested lay up with 4:16 remaining.
Young turned around on the other end and hit a big 3 to give Pitt a seven-point lead, 52-45.
“We made that run and almost got there but we couldn’t never quite finish it off,” Beilein said.
Alexander and Frank Young had a tough night against Pitt’s physical defense. The pair made just 6 of 24 shots and combined for 16 points. Freshman Da’Sean Butler was West Virginia’s leading scorer with 14 points coming off the bench.
Butler made 5 of 12 from the floor in 29 minutes.
“We ran plays today they have never seen … ever,” said Beilein. “They are just so good defensively. You take some of our better defensive players over the years at West Virginia and they put four of those guys at a time out there – not just one or two.”
Overall, West Virginia shot 32.7 percent and was only 6 of 22 from 3-point range for 22.2 percent.
“You don’t get many open shots against Pitt and when you get them you need to make them,” Beilein said. “We had a couple of fast breaks and we didn’t make them but that’s just how it’s going to be. This is very similar to the second game we played here against Ben Howland when they had that ‘Sweet 16” team and we just couldn’t get over the hump.”
Pitt had a 38-21 advantage on the boards – an area Panther coach Jamie Dixon said his team needed to dominate earlier this week.
Seven-foot center Aaron Gray had 14 points and nine rebounds, while Ronald Ramon added 10 points.
“Ramon it seems like he’s been around forever. He hit daggers on us,” said Beilein.
Four Mountaineers played 35 minutes or more with another game against a Top 10 team coming up on Saturday against UCLA.
“They are just better than us right now and it’s that simple,” Beilein said. “They should be better than us. They’re missing (Carl) Krauser and we’re missing five guys. They’ve got a coach who knows what he’s doing and they beat us well.”
West Virginia drops to 18-5, 7-4 with the loss. The UCLA game on Saturday is already a sell out. The contest will air on CBS and will tip off at 1 pm.
“We’ve got to rest a lot tomorrow and we’ve got a 1 o’clock start on Saturday. We have to look at the film and we’ll see some of the same tendencies of how UCLA plays,” Beilein said.
